cashews

I noticed a distinct possibility yesterday
that my central heating was out of whack
it was 65 degrees warmer inside than out
and yet that was low.
ah, that’s the price we pay for privilege,
where we can’t notice the needs
or necessities
of others, but notice the seeming flaws–
“can’t hire good help these days”
says the smoking movie starlette on her ottoman

I sit there, pondering,
“my cashews taste like elephants,
and trips to the farm.”
what is that malfunction in this oh-greatness
of evolution?
why do I even know what it is like to lick the
flesh of the grey pakaderm anyway?

such is the life. of a communist, or a socialist,
who is trapped in repetitive strain injury hell–
free enterprise society, that is—
and this mind wanders and it bitters in its mental images
it blows up Hummers and it flips birds at their drivers
it contemplates violence against those that perpetually perpetuate it
and it believes with passion
what a world it could be out there.

so back to these heating problems,
and these cashews with their lingering zoological queries
in that space where my thoughts huddle under that tartan scarf
where I am given the free reign to sort through this mess,
where I am given the pen and the paper and all the other useful
tools–
sickle and hammer, even,
to find this needle, where it may be.
it is as frequent as the socialism alerts in my mailbox.
it is as cunning as the whit I drop single-letter-by-letter from these fingers
and yet it is vast, and varied, and expansive.
it is that universe that we don’t understand
it is that realm we don’t know how to explore
and it is that faith we are willing to grasp onto

for I am the eternal wanderer, then, alone,
if majority rule is homologous to right.
or if the right is homologous to the holy.
I don’t need to find the answers; that’s not the point of this test
but it certainly would be nice to know,
somewhere, in that growing 80 billion light-year wide space
someone else is feeling the same way,
and perhaps tastes elephants when they snack on a few cashews
now and then.